Ballistic jacket-pile connection



1967 w. F.MANNING 3 2 19 BAL- LISTIC JACKET-FILE CONNECTION Filed Sept.2:5, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR WILLIAM F. MANNING Filed Sept.

Nov. 14, 1967 w. F. MANNING 3,352,119

BALLISTIC JACKET-FILE CONNECTION 2 Sheets -Sheet 2 INVENTOR. WILLIAM F.MANNING y 0/ 014 v p d I United States Patent 3,352,119 BALLISTICJACKET-FILE CONNECTION William F. Manning, Springdale, Conn., assignorto Mobil Oil Corporation. a corporation of New York Filed Sept. 23,1965, Ser. No. 489,527 1 Claim. (Cl. 61-46) The invention relates to adevice for rigidly fixing a completely submerged anchoring pile within atubular hollow mooring member, such as a structural support leg orjacket of an ofishore drilling or production facility, through which itis driven. More particularly the invention relates to a ballistic devicemounted on the outside of the tubular mooring member, to be anchored inthe sea bottom, the ballistic device being remotely detonated so as todrive a spike or pin thereof through the outermember and an inner memberor pile whereby the two members are held rigidly with respect to eachother prior to grouting and during the setting period of the groutpumped into the-annular space therebetween.

Present developments in the offshore oil and gas industry indicate thatproduction efforts will be extended to underwater areas where permanentsurface installations are neither as economically nor technologicallyfeasible as they are in the Gulf of Mexico Where most experience withoffshore completions has previously been obtained. Even where the depthof the sea does not prohibit the use of surface structures, it isusually advisable to shelter as much of the equipment as possiblebeneath the surface to avoid the forces produced by hurricanes and otherviolent storms as well as the everyday effects of tides and, in thenorthern latitudes, ice formations. The term sea is used here to denotea body of water in which it is contemplated to use the invention, and itis meant to encompass any and all open ocean, coastal, or inlandsubmerged landareas.

When mooring-permanent facilities for offshore oil or.

gas production, beneath the surface of the sea, one of the problems thathas been encountered is that of forming a good cement bond between thepile and the leg or jacket by Y which the structure is moored. Inabove-surface installations, where the pile is driven down through themooring leg or jacket into the sea bottom, with the upper endof the pilestill extending above the surface at the upper end of the jacket, thepile may be temporarily welded. to the jacket above the surface toprovide a rigid connection during the grouting operation so that themembers will not move relative to each other until the grout sets. Whenthe entire facility is considerably below the surface of the sea, suchas when mooring a subsea production gathering satellite, or anunderwater storage facility as shown in the Crawford et a1. Patent No.3,113,699, issued December 10, 1963, welding cannot be relied on evenwhen a diver can reach the upper end of the pileand the leg or jacket.

.The present invention can also be used when driving a short. pile downthrough a leg or jacket extending above the surface, into the bottom,where the pile is not designed to extend all the way back to thesurface. Such a structure is disclosed in the application Serial No.266,734 for Apparatus and Method for Installation of a Pile-JacketAssembly in a Marine Bottom by William F. Manning. In this instance theobject is to foreshorten the length of the pile so that the hammeringenergy needed to drive it through-the leg or jacket will be less. The

forces tending to compress or flexthe pile during hammering aredisclosed as generally proportional to the length of the pile andtherefore shortening the pile will lessen the energy expended in drivingit. The pile driving hammer, as shown in the above-discussed patentapplication, will be lowered down into a casing to impart blows to thepile until the pile is secured in the sea bottom with 3,352,119 PatentedNov. 14, 1967 See Other objects and advantages of this invention willbecome readily apparent from the following description when taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings and the illustrated usefulembodiments in accordance with this invention:

FIGURE 1 is an illustrative representation of a subsea gathering andstorage system using the ballistic jacket-pile connection of theinvention;

- FIGURE 2 is an elevational view of a jacket-pile showing the ballisticdevice of the present invention mounted on the jacket; and

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary sectional view taken through lines 3-3 ofFIGURE 2 illustrating the details of the ballistic device.

The ballistic device of the present invention is primarily designed tofix the relative positions of a completely submerged pair of telescopedelongated members, such as a hollow jacket or leg, and a pile driventherethrough into the sea bottom. Due to the versatility of the device,the connection can be made at any point along the members rather thanjust at the upper ends as with the previous method, discussed above,where the upper ends of the members, above the surface, would be weldedtogether. One or more of these ballistic devices is mounted on theoutside of the hollow outer member, the leg or jacket, preferably over ahole drilled therein. Upon the detonation of a charge within theballistic device, a spike or rod within the device is driven through thedrilled hole in the wall of the jacket or leg and through the wall ofthe hollow pile therewithin.

The ballistic device,as designed, is a hollow cylinder mounted on theoutside of the leg or jacket with its axis substantial-1y radiallydisposed with respect to the axis of the leg or jacket. An explosivecharge is packed intothe far end of the cylinder, adjacent the outerface "of the piston, while a spike or rod is fitted on the inner facethereof. The spike may extend beyond the cylinder prior to detonation topermit the cylinder to be lined up with respect to a preformed hole inthe leg or jacket before being fixed thereto. Upon detonation of thecharge outward of the piston, the spike is driven inward, throughthepreformed hole in the leg or jacket and the wall of the enclosed pile tohold the two members together. Grout isthen pumped into the annulusbetween the members where it later sets to hold the pile permanentlywithin the "jacket.

thereof by an interconntcting circumferential spacer ring or brace. Onlytwo ballistic devices are shown connected by-xasingle brace; however,three or more could be fixed,

equally spaced, by the same brace and even more than one layer of themcould be used for a single connection.

Although the primary function of the ballistic device is to form atemporary connection, prior to grouting, under certain circumstances theballistic connection could form the only means of attaching elements.The use of the device depends on the intended use and the loads imposedon the structure being fabricated or moored.

FIGURE 1 shows a subsea gathering and storage system anchored on the seabottom far beneath the surface. A satellite is anchored on the bottomwithin a ring of submerged wellheads 12, capping directionally drilledwells diverging outward beneath in the subaqueous earth. The satellite10 is interconnected with each wellhead 12 by a flexible conduit 14containing the necessary control and production lines. A further conduit16, carrying air and electrical communication lines, connects thesatellite 10 with a point above the surface of the water through abuoy'18 moored by a pair of guidelines 20'. The satellite 10 is alsoconnected, by shipping lines 22, to a bottomanchored storage tank 24.The storage tank 24 is interconnected with the surface by a single buoymooring system 26 shown in more detail in the patent of Isaac Ault, No.2,701,375, issued February 8, 1955. A hollow conduit 28 and the buoyanchoring lines 30 extend from the storage tank 24 to the surface.

The satellite 10 and the storage tank 24 are both necessarily rigidlyanchored into the sea bottom. Since it is desirable to have no rigidelements extending to the surface, to lessen navigational hazards, aswell as to secure all of the permanent facilities in the less turbulentbottom waters, short jackets 32 are mounted vertically and equallyspaced around a peripheral lip 34 on the lower end of the satellite 10and the peripheral lip 36 on the lower end of the storage tank 24. Dueto the size of the storage tank 24, the jackets 32 thereon may be of alarger diameter and cross braced by diagonal struts 38 between thejackets 3'2 and the lip 36 and horizontal struts 40 between the jackets32 and the walls of the storage tank 24 itself.

As shown in FIGURE '2, each of the jackets 32 illustrated has acylindrical body 42 and a conical upper guiding section 44. Annularseals 46, fixed in the upper and lower ends of the body 42 of the jacket32, are designed to coact with the outer face of a tubular pile 48driven into the subaqueous earth through the jackets 32. A grout port 50traverses the jacket wall between the seals 46 and has a grout line 52connected thereto for injecting the cementitious material into theannular space 53 between the hollow members directly from a ship orstation (not shown) on the surface or from the interior of the satellite10. Another port (not shown) may be positioned in the wall of the jacketbody 42 between the seals 46 for removing the water from the sealedannular space 53.

A plurality of ballistic units 54 are tightly fixed to the outer surfaceof the jacket 32 by a circumferential spacer ring 56 holding the groupof units in place. Each of the units 54 is aligned by a spike 58extending therefrom (FIGURES 2 and 3) and a short distance into theannular space 53 through preformed holes 60 (FIGURE 3) in the jacketwall.

As shown in FIGURE 3, each of the units 54 is a closed cylinder with theinner end 62 slightly concave to match the curvature of the jacket wall.A piston head 64 is slidable in the axial direction in a central coaxialchamber 66 therewithin, the axial spike 58 being fixed to the inner faceof the piston head 64 and extending through a coaxial hole 67 in theinner concave end 62 making a watertight seal with an O ring 68 in thewall thereof. An explosive mixture 69, which can be electricallydetonated, either directly or indirectly, is packed into the area withinthe chamber 66 beyond the outer face of the piston head 64. The pistonhead 64 is held from moving inward prior to detonation by a frangiblering 70 set in a groove 72 just ahead of the inner face of the pistonhead. Threaded into the outer end of the chamber, beyond the piston head64, is an electrical connector and detonator 74 connected by electricalwires 76 outside the unit 54 with a remote detonator control (not shown)on a surface ship or station or in the satellite 10. A relief port 78,formed in the inner end of the chamber 66 to allow any included gas toescape in advance of the piston head 64 during detonation, is closed bya frangible plug 80 strong enough to keep the inner end of the chamberwatertight but not strong enough to hold against the explosivepressures.

For ease of assembly, the piston head 64 is set into the chamber 66,after the locating of the frangible ring 70, from the outer end. Athreaded closure plate 82 is then screwed into the outer end of thechamber 66, the explosive agent being added through a port 83 in theclosure plate 82. A plug 84 is adapted to be threaded into the port 82to complete the watertight integrity of the chamber 66.

Prior to lowering the satellite 10 into the water, the jackets aredrilled with the spike holes 60, as many as the number of connectionsneeded for the satellite. A ballistic device 54 is placed over each hole60 with the spike 58 fitting into the hole. The ring 56 is set over eachset of two ballistic units 54 and is welded thereto and to the jacket32. After so modifying each jacket 32 the satellite 10 is lowered to thebottom and piles 48, guided into each of the jackets 32, are driven intothe bottom by any suitable method. The ballistic units 54 are thendetonated to connect rigidly the jacket-piles after the piles have beendriven in as far as possible. Grout is injected into the annular space53 and after this cementitious material has set and hardened, the usefulfunction of the temporary ballistic connection is at an end, thesatellite being securely anchored in the bottom.

The storage facility 24 is similarly anchored into the bottom. Due toits larger size and greater frontal area for forces of the sea to actupon, the jackets 32 and piles 48' would probably be scaled up in sizeand more ballistic units 54 would be used on each jacket-pile.

Although the present invention has been described in connection withdetails of the specific embodiments thereof, it is to be understood thatsuch details are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. Theterms and expressions employed are used in a descriptive and not alimiting sense and there is no intention of excluding such equivalents,in the invention described, as follow in the scope of the claim. Nowhaving described the apparatus herein disclosed, reference should be hadto the claim which follows.

What is claimed is:

A method for rigidly connecting a pair of telescoped elongated members,one of said members secured to a body beneath the surface of the seaincluding the following steps:

(a) insert the inner member into the outer member beneath said surfaceof the sea;

(b) detonate an explosive material to drive a spike through said outerand inner members to fix said inner member relative to said outermember; and

(c) inject a settable cementitious fluid material into an annular spacebetween said inner and outer members until said space is filled wherebythe connection allows the cementitious material to form a good bondbetween said inner and outer members as it sets.

No references cited.

JACOB SHAPIRO, Primary Examiner,

